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The third and final presidential debate takes place on Wednesday in Las Vegas. While there are no current plans to have an actual mud pit onstage, stranger things have already happened in this election season. Over the weekend, Donald Trump said the candidates should have to take drug tests at the debate. For those trying to make sense of it all, the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday hosts a pre-debate discussion on “Election 2016: How Did We Get To This?” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife, Agnese Landini, will be the guests of President and Michelle Obama during an official state visit and dinner, cooked by Mario Batali, on Tuesday. Italy will conduct a referendum on constitutional reform on December 4, which would streamline parliament in hopes of ...

Happy Columbus Day! Congress remains on the road, but the Supreme Court is in full swing and the Bureaucracy – err, Executive Branch – never goes anywhere. Absent another hurricane, much of the week will be spent deconstructing Sunday’s Presidential Town Hall and previewing the third and final debate, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 19. We’re pretty sure the Middle Class came up a time or two in Sunday’s debate, and on Tuesday the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research takes a hard look at the topic. Midday, it’s a book discussion on “The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class,” and in the evening it hosts a discussion on “The Decline of the White Working Class.” On Wednesday, the Hoover Institution hosts a conversation with J.D. Vance, author ...

They struck a budget deal, voted to override a presidential veto, and then Congress skedaddled, leaving Washington until after the election. When they return, sometime after Nov. 8, they will have a few familiar items on their plate: reaching a budget deal (the current plan extends through Dec. 9), possibly amending that bill that they voted to override, and approving money to help Flint, Mich. with its water problems. As one branch of government leaves for an extended time, another is just settling in: the Supreme Court convenes for its new term on Monday — still with only eight justices. Among the issues on the docket in the first month are a major insider trading case and an unending battle over smartphone patents between Apple and Samsung. Relatedly, on Wednesday, the Heritage Foundati ...

Fifty-six years after John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first televised presidential debate, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will go head-to-head on Monday night at Hofstra University on Long Island in a debate that, according to some estimates, could draw as many as 100 million viewers. Congress failed to reach agreement on a new budget last week, so with five days to go before current funding expires, members will return to Washington on Monday to try to reach an agreement to keep the government from closing down Saturday. The Senate will conduct a cloture vote on Tuesday, but it’s not clear that Republicans can garner the 60 votes needed to set up a final vote for Wednesday or Thursday. The current bill would extend funding through Dec. 9, requiring Congress to compl ...

For months, investors have looked forward to the Fed’s September meeting with an expectation that the outcome would be a bump up in interest rates. No more. When the Federal Open Market Committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday, the financial markets will be coming off a volatile week in which the S&P 500 index lost 2 percent. The activity likely took a September rate hike off the table, according to financial analysts. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen will meet with the press Wednesday afternoon following announcement of the Fed’s decision. Congress is winding down the last pre-election legislative session this week and, perhaps, next, as both chambers try to reach budget compromises to keep the government open past Sept. 30, when the current funding expires. The two houses are deadlocked over ...